Magical Hogwarts

Cliona had had a very good reason for leaving the castle this morning. She couldn't quite remember what it was just now, but it had certainly been a very good reason indeed, for even these days a month or two would often go by without her venturing further than the Schull estate grounds. She wandered along, munching on a tomato from the bag she happened to have in her pocket and enjoying the late Spring sunshine, oblivious to the strong winds until a piece of parchment literally flew into her face.

"What's this?" she asked nobody in particular, holding it first upside-down and then the correct way up to read it. It was a spell certainly, written in a very archaic version of gaelic by the looks of it, some of the words unfamiliar even to her. Footsteps off somewhere to her left caused her to look up briefly and she saw a blonde-haired girl approaching but the scroll was too interesting just now to remember how to greet someone correctly. Indeed, the elderly witch already had her wand out and was beginning to pronounce the first phrase.

"Tada gan iarracht" she began, which was a strange way to begin a spell, and perhaps (well, certainly) almost any other witch would have thought twice about reciting a random spell on a random bit of parchment that had hit them on the face thirty seconds earlier and had no explanation as to what it actually did, but Cliona had never been famed for her fantastic decision-making skills. So she continued, oblivious to the girl who was approaching and who might have been trying to attract her attention, oblivious even to the bag of tomatoes having fallen out of her pocket.

Oblivious even to the fact that she was shrinking rapidly - or was it the tomatoes that were getting larger? They seemed to be growing and growing until she could actually climb inside the bag...which was of course exactly what she did.

"What a wonderful day" Cliona muttered happily.

@Luna Lovegood

EDIT: t'interwebs inform me that the title means "Broken Irish is better than clever English" and the phrase she says means "Nothing is done without effort"

Luna had apparated to Ireland after one of her informants had messaged her that there had been a sighting of particularly small winged horses that looked like tiny versions of Aethonans. Maybe it was just another hint that wasn’t worth pursuing, but Luna never wanted to miss out a chance to encounter a new or, at least, so far unknown species.

She was walking down a street when she saw an elderly woman who, judging by her looks, was a witch as well. For a moment the young woman thought that the older one had spotted her and she made her way to approach her, but, as she reached her, the woman was distracted by a piece of parchment and began to voice an incantation.

Luna frowned, recognising the language as some kind of gaelic. She couldn’t make sense of the phrase, but maybe the woman knew what she was doing. Luna wanted to believe that the other witch did not randomly try out spells that she didn’t know as that would be very reckless indeed.

However, Luna’s hope was soon squashed when saw the woman in front of her starting to shrink. While that by itself would have sufficed to worry any passerby, things got worse when Luna felt that she, too, was shrinking rapidly. The elderly woman didn’t seem bothered by what happened, on the contrary, she looked rather pleased with the situation, and climbed into her bag that, in comparison with her own size, looked more like a house now.

Luna hurried to close the distance between the two of them which had been just a few steps when they had still been their normal size, but now felt like a long distance. “Hello,” she said, startled by the sound of her voice which was terribly squeaky and high, “what have you done?” Then, realising that, maybe, the miniature Aethonians had also been shrunk, she added, “did you happen to shrink winged horses, too?”

It was, indeed, possibly the finest day of Cliona's life. She pulled a small knife out of a pocket in her robes and carved a slice of the nearest tomato, which immediately released a delicious aroma and spurted out enough juice that it would have filled a pint glass if she had happened to have one with her. The juice covered her hands and the cuffs of her robe, and she smiled happily as she took a big bite of the largest tomato she had ever encountered.

The voice behind her barely made her jump.

"I cut a slice. Would you like some?" she asked, holding out her knife and even remembering to offer it handle-first to the young witch who had just arrived and was also the same size. Then the young woman - she could stil be called a girl really, Cliona thought - said something about shrinking winged horses.

"Why would I do that?" she asked, curious now, but then putting two and two together, because for all her bizarre ways Cliona was actually an intelligent woman. She had dropped the parchment on the ground when she had begun to shrink, and luckily it hadn't blown away though it had inexplicably remained full size. She would have to walk along it to be able to read it, which was what she did now, temporarily forgetting there was someone else there. The wind had blown it over, and there were more words on the back.

"If reversing the spell in what you think, you must reverse the charm in ink" she read. Simple enough.

"Have you got a feather? My quill broke..." she said, pulling out a sad-looking pen with just a few pins of the once-fine goose feather. It seemed the girl hadn't though, so after a moment's thought Cliona extracted her wand and stared at it thoughtfully. The perfect spell for this existed, but as she couldn't remember what it was, she would improvise.

"Plumapullem!"  she exclaimed in her strong Irish accent, brandishing her wand with far more enthusiasm than was necessary. She nodded in satisfaction as something white and feathery began to materialise...and coalesce...and grow...

"Ah..."

At the sight of the enormous, normal-sized and extremely belligerent chicken she had just conjured, Cliona retreated deeper into her bag of tomatoes. Maybe it wasn't quite the finest day of her life after all. 

Would she like a slice of a now giant looking but actually normally sized tomato? Luna shrugged and then took the knife that the older woman so politely handed her with the handle pointing towards her. “Thank you,” Luna said squeakily.

It was interesting to have a slice of tomato while she was so tiny herself. The juice of the vegetable wetted her hands as she cut something out of it. The vegetable itself, however, was quite delicious and made her momentarily forget about the predicament they were in. However, this moment of indulgence didn’t last for longer than it took to eat the little piece of tomato.

Apparently they needed a quill or some other writing tool so they could reverse the spell and grow back to their normal sizes. Luna was about to tell the old woman  that she, indeed, had a feather. Before she could voice this positive news, though, the elderly witch was already going for another incantation.

Luna’s eyes widened in terror when she saw what materialised in front of them. Taking a step backwards she slipped on the tomato juice and landed in a bright red puddle. Quickly she retrieved her wand, which had luckily been shrunk with her, from her pocket and pointed it at the chicken that was already leaning down to her and was about to pick her.

“Evanesco!” she squeaked and the chicken dissolved into thin air.

“I have a quill,” she then said, retrieving it from her robes. “I don’t have ink, though. Maybe we should use the tomato juice as ink.”

This was awkward, she had to admit. Being mouse-sized and trapped by an angry chicken inside a bag of tomatoes was not quite the day Cliona had planned, though it would make a fine tale to tell Gabriella when she got home. Her little friend was always a fine audience for whatever tale the elderly witch liked to tell, though usually it was stories from her own family history. This time she could imitate her brother and tell a story entirely of her own. The thought pleased her - there was always something good to be found in the worst of circumstancesm if one just thought about it long enough.

Aha! There we are - the girl had vanished the chicken, and even managed to produce a quill from somewhere. "You could have said you had one earlier" she said sensibly, but it probably didn't matter. Writing wasn't the easiest thing whilst one's life was being threatened by a giant chicken, and indeed it hadn't even occurred to her to try writing anything a few minutes earlier. The ink suggestion was a good one though, so Cliona grunted her assent and conjured a jar, into which she allowed some of the tomato juice to drink.

Then she drank the contents of the jar, smacked her lips, and repeated the process.

When she finally had a jar of thick, red juice, she walked over to the dropped parchment (first checking over her shoulder to make certain the chicken hadn't brought a friend) and sat down on it, legs crossed in a far more athletic pose than was usually expected of one her age.

"Shall we begin?" she asked, quite overlooking the fact that the original spell was written on the other side of the paper upon which she was now sitting.

The old witch was probably wise beyond measure, but Luna wasn’t sure if she was actually quite on top of things. However, she was extraordinary for sure and the Lovegoods loved quirky people. Luna made a mental note to tell her father all about this peculiar encounter and her adventure.

The elderly woman apparently quite enjoyed the tomato juice. Luna didn’t judge her for that. How could she anyway? She was quite aware that some of the things she loved were frowned upon by others. “Have you ever tried dirigible plum tea?” she asked curiously, “if you haven’t you should try it. I think you’d rather enjoy it.”

It was funny even to Luna that she was talking about dirigible plum tea while she was still shrunk to the size of a mouse. Yet, she was not afraid at all. Things would work out just fine, she could feel it.

She watched as the other woman sat down in what looked like a yoga pose. Luna was impressed by her flexibility - not so much with her attempt to reverse the spell.

“Excuse me,” she began politely, “I believe you’re sitting on the part of the paper which we’ll be needing…”

Cliona hadn't heard of dirigible plums, let alone dirigible plum tea, but it sounded quite interesting. She wondered where one could get a tree from so she could grow some of her own (the concept of walking in to a cafe to sample something not even crossing her mind, which under the circumstances was probably quite a good thing). "It sounds nice" she offered, though right now she was quite satisfied with the tomato juice and really had no desire for anything else to drink. Being this size certainly had some advantages, she thought.

But of course, it would probably take a week to walk across the estate when she was this size, and while it would be an adventure, it probably wasn't the adventure she wanted to have for the rest of her life. Her thoughts were interrupted and yes, of course she was sitting on the parchment. It was a much better plan than getting grass stains on her robes...but seeing the spell they were reversing would definitely be a good idea. So she stood up (again making it look far easier than a woman of her age had any right to) and brandished her wand once again.

"What's the spell to turn a bedspread..?" she muttered to herself, thinking that the parchment appeared to be of a similar size. It wouldn't come to her though, so she took one corner and tugged firmly so it would flip over, assuming her companion would do the same with another corner.

The task was almost complete when she heard a soft clopping sound and looked up to see four or five large horses approaching. That was to say, they were large enough to be quite intimidating in their current state, but would have been quite tiny indeed to a regular-sized person. "Gabriella would love those..!" she exclaimed.

“Oh it is very nice indeed.” Luna confirmed. She wondered if her regular consumption of dirigible plum tea was part of the reason why she could easily accept being shrunk like this and dealing with this peculiar elderly woman who apparently loved tomato juice. Luna did not only accept the extraordinary, she usually embraced it.

However, while she found this new perspective as a miniature version of herself quite interesting - things definitely looked different from this far down - Luna couldn’t help but hope that this state wouldn’t last for too long. At her usual size things were just so much easier. Walking was faster. If she wanted to go back the way she had walked along previously, it would take her so much longer.

Luna was not in the slightest confused by the woman’s question for a spell to turn a bedsheet, but before she could answer it, the woman made an attempt to turn the parchment manually and so Luna assisted instead of answering.

The sudden appearance of the shrunken Aethonan horses interrupted the women’s attempt at reversing the spell, but, ultimately, it was probably good that the horses were there, too. It was possible that the reverse spell might help them get back to their normal majestic size as well.

While Luna had not the faintest idea who Gabriella was, she nodded in awe as the horses galloped towards them and came to a halt not far away. “They’re gorgeous, aren’t they,” Luna said, reaching into her pocket and retrieving a shrunken apple which she offered to the nearest horse.

“We should get ahead with the spell, though,” she reminded the older woman.

Having turned the parchment, Cliona then promptly lost all interest as she noticed the winged horses . Her young companion clearly felt the same, offering something out of her pocket to one of the beasts.

Cliona tried to remember how much space there was in the Schull stables. There were the regular horses, of course, and the pretty pair of thestrals, but aside from that...were there some empty stalls? She thought it would be rather fine to ride home on one of them whilst leading another, though of course they didn't have any bridles which could be a problem... but of course, they were going to be the correct size, soon. Then the aethonians would fit quite nicely into her pockets and she could easily take them home that way.

The girl, spoke, interrupting her train of thought, but that was fine. She was feeling very relaxed today, and this had been a fine adventure. Giant tomatoes aside, she supposed it would be quite difficult to spend the rest of her life this size. "Yes, of course..." she said, leaving off petting the nose of the closest miniature aethonian (for which she'd had to stand on tiptoes) and making her way back to stare at the parchment. Now they had a quill, though she recalled it wasn't entirely necessary, because there was of course a useful little spell for reversing things, and that included making the words of the spell appear on the reverse of the parchment, and of course now they would be completely backwards which was just what she needed.

Cliona had previously used this spell for such delightful reasons as uncooking cakes because she preferred eating the batter, so she was quite adept at it.

"There. Would you like to read it?" she asked graciously, once the words were visible.

Luna watched as the older woman used a spell to reverse the words of the spell written on the parchment. While she was a peculiar old lady, she was also a skilled witch as far as Luna could tell and she admired her in some way.

Would she like to read it? The young witch shrugged, she wasn’t entirely sure if she’d get the pronunciation right given that the words were in Gaelic and, well, reversed. Surely whatever she’d say would sound quite funny and wrong even if it happened to be right.

She pulled out her wand. “We should both stand close to the horses,” Luna said, hoping that by casting this spell, she’d get them all back to normal.

“Are you ready?” It was more a rhetorical question than anything else but Luna felt she needed to give some sort of a warning.

She then took a deep breath and looked at the spell on the parchment, reading it twice silently before actually speaking the words out loud. Sparks erupted from her wand tip and for a moment they were surrounded by dust which only slowly cleared.

The possibility that her companion couldn't speak gaelic hadn't crossed Cliona's mind for a moment. She just felt she was offering a fun learning experience and naturally didn't imagine anything could possibly go wrong. Standing close to the horses was a good idea, she went back and petted the nose of the friendliest one and for a moment wondered about clambering on its back. Then she remembered that maybe they were tiny aethonians to begin with and if she grew back to her regular size and the horse didn't, that wouldn't be a kind thing to do, so she remained where she was.

"We're ready" she said agreeably, quite forgetting which language she was using, and stood expectantly. She wondered how it would feel when the spell was reversed, and decided probably nothing at all because she had only noticed the tomatoes growing when she had shrunk...the tomatoes! Oh, how she wished she had kept hold of those - maybe they would have been made gigantic by the spell reversal and how wonderful that would be! But it was too late now, a dustcloud seemed to swirl out of nowhere and Cliona cloughed, putting her hands up to her face and rubbing her eyes.

The dust slowly cleared, and nothing seemed to have changed at first. She and the girl were still relatively the same size, and an aethonian snorted softly and nudged her shoulder. 'Did it..?" she began, and then noticed the regular-sized bag of tomatoes on the ground. "Oh..." she commented sadly, walking over and picking them up "I suppose it did." 

She considered the parchment, and the aethonians. If they were escaped from somewhere, they probably should be taken care of before some filthy muggle saw them. She decided to tell her family about them once she returned to the castle and see what they thought - no doubt Gabriella would insist on coming out to see them. "Did you want this?" she asked, pushing the parchment with her foot. Cliona didn't think she wanted to shrink herself down any time soon, but maybe the girl would think of a use for such a spell. She decided it was time to leave, and raised her wand ready to disapparate.

Just before she cast the spell, she remembered her manners. "You're welcome to come to my next birthday party" she said to the girl with a smile.

[out]

While the old woman often switched into Gaelic language, Luna felt that she understood her fairly well all things considered. A thought briefly crossed Luna’s mind that they actually ought to eat a cake that was labelled ‘eat me’ like in Alice in Wonderland. Some bits of this encounter felt like she had gone down the rabbit hole anyway.

The spell fortunately did the trick, though, no mysterious cake was needed to grow them back to their usual size. Luna couldn’t deny that she felt safer at her usual height. Having been so very small had made her feel rather vulnerable although she had also found it rather intriguing, seeing everything from a totally unfamiliar angle.

She looked at the aethonians and while their difference in height hadn’t shifted much, she couldn’t help but think that they looked even more majestic now than they had when they all had been tiny together.

The elderly witch apparently didn’t want to keep the parchment and so Luna picked it up and folded it carefully. It wasn’t that she desperately wanted to repeat this adventure, but leaving a something as dangerous as this out there for the next best witch or wizard to (mis)use wasn’t exactly a good idea.

“Birthday party?” Luna echoed, wondering if the other woman’s birthday was soon. She just wanted to enquire further when the other witch disappeared with a loud plop and left her standing there with the horses and the folded piece of parchment.

“I’ll better inform the authorities, I suppose,” Luna told the horse nearest to her. She flicked her wand to bridle the horses and led them to a tree where she fastened the reins. “I’ll be back.” She said before she turned around to disapparate.

[out]